Police, probation and the bifurcation of community

Abstract

The police and probation services are agencies that have traditionally had close relations with the communities in which they work. Both agencies exhibit tensions in their relations with the community: in policing, in the relation between centralised targets and community needs, and in probation in the role of the community in the process of rehabilitation and desistance. We argue that these tensions mirror deeper contradictions within current urban and social policy concerning the role envisaged for community in the process of urban renewal